Research into the history of Football in Falkirk district : mainly concentrating on the the period up to 1945 I like to dig through the newspapers from the days of yore to find little vignettes that were rarely included in the published histories.
From the ugly side to the downright obscure, just don't expect me to write about anything too obvious ....

Friday, 1 March 2013

The
only picture I have of Thomas Turnbull [after he had retired with the
Grahamston Bowling Club football team]

A
very young Thomas Turnbull turned out for the club to fill the gap at
right-back which had been causing the club problems since the
departure of Jock Drummond to Rangers in 1891/92, and seemed to fit
the bill. A promising back with local juvenile side Whitefield Swifts
it was always a risk but the club seems to have few other options.
Apart from in temperament [he seemed to get sent off a number of
times] Thomas was a very fortunate arrival for the club.

Coming
from a farming family from East Plean, roughly halfway between
Falkirk and Stirling, Thomas had two other brothers who played for
the club. [Alex who kept goal in the 1880s, and striker James [later
with Manchester United] in the 1900s] The family had Falkirk
connections which explains why they played in the eastern district
rather than the county town.

But
Thomas was better than the level Falkirk were then playing at, and
after a season with East Stirlingshire he found a suitable level with
Celtic. It was while at Celtic that the perennial English Scouts came
looking and he was soon lured south of the border to play for
Sheffield United, which is where it went awry, he broke his leg
whilst playing in a match for the Yorkshire side which all but ended
his career at the highest level.

Later
tentative comebacks with Stenhousemuir [he is still one of the few
footballers to play for all three Falkirk district clubs] then
Partick Thistle came to little, and he finally retired from the game.

After
football he went into business with another brother, John, opening a
cinema in Denny amongst other things. He was also the proprietor of
the Star Inn, Grahams Road, Falkirk, himself living in Watson Street
[which those of you old enough know was in the vicinity of Brockville
Park].